Лекция: Origin of Homonyms

	Convergent development of sound form	Divergent semantic development
Independent of morphological changes	OE zетæпе ‘common’ Lat medianus mean ‘average’ OE тæпап ‘think'	chest ‘large box’ OE cest chest ‘part of human body'
Combined with morphological changes	OE lufu n love n, v OE lufian v	wait v ME waiten v wait n silence n Lat silentium n silence v

The process can sometimes be more complicated. Thus, according to COD, the verb stick developed as a mixture of ME stiken<OE stician<sticca ‘peg’, and ME steken cognate with Greek stigma. At present there are at least two homonyms: stick v ‘to insert pointed things into’, a highly polysemantic word, and the no less polysemantic stick n ‘a rod’.

In the course of time the number of homonyms on the whole increases, although occasionally the conflict of homonyms ends in word loss.

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Old English Period in the History of the English Language. Old English Written Records